The only female police officer on the force, a dispatcher for ten years, discovered that most of the twelve town troopers were looking for other jobs. Something had to be done, if Black Lake lost any more officers, the state would take charge of law enforcement. She would be out of a job, so would the Mayor in the November election. It was late spring now, not much time to resolve the problem, but how?
Gina had a talk with the mayor. "Mayor, you better turn the police department around, quick. You have only six months or you will be voted out of office."
"I know, what can I do, no young man wants to be on a small-town police forc? They all want to work in a big city with some action. Where will I find men who want this job? Without a police department we're out."
She, "Mayor, I have a solution."
"You do? I want to hear it."
"Replace our entire police requirement of men with females."
"What? Are you insane - where would you find them?"
She, "There are 12 young ladies who have graduated from Western University with degrees in criminology looking for work. They have a far better education in police procedures than our force ever had."
"It won't work. What chief would agree to manage women recruits?"
"No problem, me."
"You, a dispatcher, no experience as a Chief of Police – be realistic."
"What do you mean? When I took over, the chief was delighted, told me to do whatever. The jail cell had a ping-pong table in it. Did you know that? It gave officers something to do when a car was not available. Now the table is gone. Prisoners are in there. My personal car has bars between the front and back seats and the rear inside door and window handles are removed. The town is now collecting fines, double from a few years ago."
"I don't know, have to think about it, talk to the six councilmen."
The mayor called her back, "Good news, you are now Chief of the Black Lake Police Department."
"Good, first thing, I will change the name to the Swan Police Department."